The UK has a dire shortage of proffessionaly skilled people; Doctors, Teachers (especially Maths and History), Engineers, and Technicians however the situation isn't going to get any better as since 1998 the Government has replaced the grant system for University; originally we would get grants, and our rent payed and we could work however that is not the case anymore Students in the UK have to pay £1100 in tuiton fees, plus we have to pay our rent ourselves, the only form of support the Government has given is interest free loans (that is soon to change to 3.1%)

What do you think about this predicament the country is in?

Should Tuiton fees be scrapped so that the Universities can take more students who can go debt free?

Or should students be forced to pay for what they are going to become in life?

Feel free to debate about the situation in the US aswell.

Personally I think that education in the post World War 2 era is a right and not a privilge.

There is also the issue of the Universities needing more money, but that is another matter.

Well... I think it is a prvillage in one sense.. I mean, most kids, by the time they reach high school, will probably know more information than some of the brightest minds centuries ago...

However, unless we want to fall back into those times, yeah... Something needs to be done about how expensive it is. It's just gotten so complicated and so technical.. I don't know, bleh.

The biggest concern to me is the shortage of teachers... That just scares me. I think it's a problem in most places... I don't have any idea what can be done about it though...

Well, sort of I do.

Much more money needs to be directed to education in the government... I mean... look at how much America is spending on Iraq right now... And for what? What did we do? We killed a few (What? Five guys we were actually AFTER?) people. We could have probably done that with a Covert-Ops team and spent only a few million, probably less...

So that's billions and billions of dollars dumped into a black hole. Some will say that's a drop in the bucket.. but I think a kid in a school that's seriously lacking resources will say differently. Every penny counts when it comes to education...

I'm *so* for dumping the military budget and converting most of it to education... What do we need a big military for? If we don't have a military (or a small one) No one would attack us anyway! Do you know how many countries would help us out? That kind of thing is no longer stood for... Most of the world powers are our allies ANYWAY...

So in summary:

Yeah, the situation with education is miserable. There needs to be way more government support, and I think it ought to come out of the military

Originally posted by The Count The UK has a dire shortage of proffessionaly skilled people; Doctors, Teachers (especially Maths and History), Engineers, and Technicians however the situation isn't going to get any better as since 1998 the Government has replaced the grant system for University; originally we would get grants, and our rent payed and we could work however that is not the case anymore Students in the UK have to pay £1100 in tuiton fees, plus we have to pay our rent ourselves, the only form of support the Government has given is interest free loans (that is soon to change to 3.1%)

I dont know how much 1100 translates into american dollars. But it costs around 15,000 Dollars for one year of college, IN STATE. Out of state will cost closer to 30,000 That's living on Campus in the dorms, which are quite small, but a lot cheaper than finding an appartment.

The thing about such high tuitions is that the schools need money to fund things like upgrading technologies, paying teacher salaries, maintaining the buildings, etc. etc.

The expense of college is a bitch, but a necessary evil. At least there are a LOT of scholarship and loan applications available. You just have to know where to look.

This is the Information age. No longer can we leave school and expect to get a job for the next 40 years and support a family and buy a house.

The times quite naturally have changed.

In Australia, the government pays for you tuition and when you get a job that pays high enough they take about 2-3% out of your salary to pay off your university education. You are indebted to the Australian Tax Office. However, the amount you owe is indexed every six months to inflation and what not.

Plus, what you pay is for really a quarter of your education with each subject you do costing around ~AU$675. Of course, people still complain, but I'm happy with it, considering that in many other countries such as US uni education would not be an option for me due to the upfront expense.

More money may not result in improvements at all. In Denmark the schools constantly cry out that they need more money. But when you look at what they want them for, it's a sad story of 'project-oriented' or 'cross-class (for lack of a better term)' education methods, all of which are of largely undocumented effeciency, very expensive, and requiring extensive rebuilding of schools and re-education of teachers. This is useless, if you ask me.

The solution, therefor, must be to send more funds, but to tie a list of efficiency requirements to said funds. Otherwise they'll all go into 'project-oriented' methods.

In terms of education, 'new and modern' all too often means 'undocumented and expensive'...

Thankfully, all public education is free over here, and I really think it should stay that way too. Students are poor enough already without paying another £1100. Not being rich enough to get education sounds horrible to me, since they then won't get any good jobs, and the family will stay poor generation after generation.

Quote:

But it costs around 15,000 Dollars for one year of college, IN STATE. Out of state will cost closer to 30,000 That's living on Campus in the dorms, which are quite small, but a lot cheaper than finding an appartment

This sounds just sick to me. What students can ever afford paying $30,000 each year?

i think yall our right cause without money u shouldn't be able to go i mean it is a privilege to be able to go to college but some parents don't have money to pay for u to go like mine they don't have the money